Electrical connecter device



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MONROE GUETT, F HRTFORD', CONNECTICUT,l SSIGNOR T0 THE HART & HEGEMAN MANUFACTURINGCOMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION 0F CONNECTICUT.

ELECTRICAL CGNNECTER DEVICE. l

Application led February 16, 1921# Serial No. 693,257.

This invention relates to fittings for electrical fixtures, and is of particular utility when embodied in connecters use 'for the mechanical and electric attachment of electric lighting fixtures to outlet receptacles installed in the walls of a building. An important object is to provide an attachment plug for such connecters oi. insulating material and so constructed as to afford t e necessary insulating effect and the requisite re sistance to deformation or fracture under n the strains which it must experience, in service, and' notwithstanding' the restricted spacel within which it must be assembled.

ln carrying the invention into effect such attachment plugs are formed of laminac ot fibrous material connected to form a unitary structure, being provided with electrical 'contact parts so united with, and supported by the laminated structure, that the attachment plug thus formed is more compact, more durable, and cheaper to construct,than existing molded plugs. I a

lin the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a connecterdevice illustrating the invention; Fig. 2'is a vertical section of the same. with parts shown iii elevation; Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the plug member, isolated from its receptacle; Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section of the isolated plug, on the line v lW-V of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a section on the line V-V of' Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a perspective of theyplug; Fig. 7-is a similar View in reversed position; `and lFig. 8 is an exploded view of the component parts of `the attachment plug. p

Appliances of the type illustrated comprise respectively a metal shell l which sustains the mechanical strain of supporting the weight of the lighting fixture such as a conventional wall lamp bracket or sconce, with its electric lamps and their shades; and an attachment plug 2 of insulating material. inovably enclosed within the aforesaid metal cover or shell andwhich carries al pair of rejecting metal contact parts or .prongs 3 iiaving binding 'screws 4 (see Fig. 3) to which are connected the xtur'e wires leading through the shell and fixture to the lamp. rlhe shell l has a pair of hooks 5, of which one is shown in Fig. l and the other appears in Fig. 2, which are adapted to hook into slots provided in the :tace-plate 6 of the wall-receptacle, of which only the face-plate is shown. A hook projection 7 on the lower 55 portion of' the shell is adapted to enter a slot in the lower part of the plate and is provided with a suitable latch device, indicated in a general way by 8, the arrangement` being such that when the shell is pushed into the slots and shoved downwards it becomes mechanically attached to the face plate and cannot be -reversely moved except by manipulating the latch.

The shell carries a threaded boss 9, riveted to it, which is adapted to support the4 iin ture, and it is also provided preferably with a number of lateral openings such as l0 affording access to the interior.

l rlhe prongs 3 carried on the plug asabovc stated, are adapted to be-pushed through slots `in theoutlet structure into engagement with corresponding contact-terminals 26, in-

lside .the outlet receptacle fandV which are connected with the house-wiring circuit as indicated. `When the prongs are entered in their slots the shell is moved downwardly over and ywithout moving the plug, to hook it, into thev face plate. The structure above described is common in this art and forms no parto'f this invention except as the latter is combined therewith and as will hereinafter appear.

lin standardizing such appliances, it has\ been found necessary to make the shell so er, small and shallow that the use of molded insulating material in forming the attachment plug 2 .makes the latter exceedingly fragile, inasmuch as a piece of molded coinposition sufliciently thin to fit and have so movement within the restricted space and containing the necessary wire passages is so weak as to break frequently under the strains vof the screw driver when fastening the fixture wires to the binding screws. A

In accordance with this invention, the lug 2is formed of several laminee of insi1 ating material, preferably vulcanized bre or equivalent. sheet insulation. rihese laminas are cut to the desired contour and appropriately punched, and then assembled and per-. manently 'fastened together by clenched staples l1 (Fig. 7), to form a com act, strong, unitary plug structure. One o Above this prong-supporting member are assembled the two lammae 14 and 15 'which are identical in contour and may therefore be made in the same dies. These lamin are centrally slotted to form a channel 16 in the assembled structure surrounding the bases of the prongs and adapted to accommodate the wires leading to the latter.

Beneath the member 12 are assembled the airs of lamin 17 and 18. The former are upllcates of each other and have holes 19 to receive the heads of eyelets 13 in the as' sembled structure while the pair of laminae 18, also of the same contour and duplicates of each other, serve to cover the'holes 19 and the eyelet-heads in the `assembled structure.

The laminae are all provided with registering holes 20 for the staples 11, or equivalent fastening means, and some or all are notched peripherally, to form, in combination, the slots 21 and the corner recesses 22. The medialmember 12 has a central hole 23 through which the fixture wires pass from the channel 16 adjacent the prongs to the space or channel between the pairs of lamin 17 and 18.

The plug 2 is assembled with the shell 1 as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 and retained therein by a lug 24 on one end of the shell and a screw 25 in the other end, which permit it to slide in, or relatively to, the shell as the latter is hooked into or removed from the face plate.

The plug 2 does not share in the movement of the shell by which it is attached to the face plates but can only move toward or from the plate, because its prongs 3 can move only in substantial parallelism with the fixed contact-terminals 26 contained by the receptacle, and accordingly the shell l has a bodily movement relatively to the plug 2, consequently the lug is .shorter than the shell, as best seen in ig. 8. The retaining lug 24 and the screw 25 enter the corner recesses 22, while the end slots 21 provide clearance of the moving parts of the latch device 8, the plug being reversible, end for end, within the shell.

I claim:

In an electrical connecter device, a plug com rising in combination a plurality of laminar insulating members, staple means for binding said members together to form a unitary body, current carryin prongs, internally threaded eyelets exten( ing through one or more of the intermediate members and securing the prongs thereto and binding screws engaging the threaded portions of the eyelets.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification.

MONROE GUETT. 

